Focus interview with freelance journalist Christina McDermott

Christina McDermott is a freelance journalist specialising in music, food and the arts. FeaturesExec caught up with McDermott to talk World War Two diets, and her dreams of running a bar-slash-record shop!

What do you write about?
Anything and everything, but for reference, by day I’m a web editor for an international business website, and by night I write about music, food, women’s issues, pop culture and the arts.

Where are we likely to see your work?
My primary job is for Ten Alps Publishing, a large independent media company based in Manchester. I also write for Orange.co.uk, the Manchester Evening News, BBC Manchester, My Weekly, Guardian.co.uk, and I’m going to be the guest editor for the women’s website Dollymix this coming February (www.dollymix.tv).

Oh, and I also keep a blog at http://giro-playgirl.livejournal.com which keeps me out of trouble I suppose.

What’s the most memorable work you’ve done?
My personal favourite was the assignment where I had to follow a World War Two rationing diet for a week. I ended up drinking a lot of stout and making a pie out of porridge oats, much to the amusement of my boyfriend.

What interview or feature would you love the chance to do?
In a perfect world, I’d love to be paid a stupid amount of money just to write my blog. In some ways I find blog writing a release as I can just unload everything going on in my brain into one place, and if people wish to read it then that’s a bonus.

I’d also love to do a feature on what it’s like to be a member of The Fall. I can’t play an instrument or sing to save my life, but it would certainly be an experience!

How would you pay the bills if you weren’t a journalist?
Baking or running my own record shop probably. I still harbour great dreams of one day opening up my own bar-slash-record shop which serves cupcakes made by my own fair hands.

If we gave you £1000, how would you spend it?
I’d take myself and my boyfriend to Berlin for a few days, and blow it all on clubbing, beer and currywurst.

What books are on your bedside table, magazines in your bag, or blogs on your screen?
I have a Bloglines account which I occasionally have to be dragged away from by force in order to get anything done! My favourite blogs are BoingBoing (www.boingboing.net), Landcroft House (http://landcrofthouse.blogspot.com), Fail Blog (www.failblog.org), Speechification (www.speechification.com), and K-Punk (http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org).

In terms of books, I’m currently reading Lascivious Bodies – a Sexual History of the 18th Century, and have just finished Finding Violet Park by Jenny Valentine, an amazing book which is much better than any young person’s book deserves to be.
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[img|jpg|Christina McDermott]